Fire, flair and Blues class from Katie Knipp.

Release Date: Available now

Label: Independent / Bandcamp

Format: CD / Digital / Vinyl (but sold out…)

Better late than never and after featuring the video premiere for Outlaw Doc, a listen to the full Me album was inevitable. Me finds Katie in album #7 mode although with a plea of embarrassed ignorance, it’s our first encounter.

Ten tracks with the expectation of some Blues, and it’s not too long before we’re flummoxed. Mud’s declaration of being “surrounded by garbage, perched on a stool” offers a suitably apt visual accompaniment that matches the expectations in the music. So far so good until the ten tracks begin to curveball between swinging big band full of fat brass lines, dirty guitar and the Wurtlitzer (Go) to a whole loada soul (in most everything) and gospel tinged love songs (I Want To Tell You). The latter a track that would be right at home in the hands of Nick Cave. It may even be the most simple of the set yet the most intense and a personal fave that doesn’t lose its presence.

The Sanatna-esque Latino vibe that comes from lounging in The Devil’s Armchair adds to the general coolness, any whiff of imminent danger blown away by the easy groove on Dirty Cables. Easy grooves that accompany musings on the sort of gigs where you wonder why – teeth cutting gigs eh?

“There’s a stillness in the air right now,” croons Katie in the hold your breath stillness of the finale – unsurprisingly entitled Stillness. Allowing an underlying passion to spill forth we’re back to preacher comparisons as Katie pours her soul into the sermon. Outlaw Doc of course, is the wild slide and harp bonanza that inhabits the area in the Venn diagram where between Status Quo rocking out and Led Zep doing Travelling Riverside Blues meet. The most rustic and organic of the set which gains traction against some of the more polished elements of the record.

A musician who plys her trade in a field where passion and angst are de rigeur, but who adds a whole different picture within the Blues frame. Take note of the advice: sink into the Devil’s armchair have a moment of bliss. Fire and flair – man she’s got it.

Here’s Outlaw Doc:

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